1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel display, an electronic apparatus and a playing apparatus (game machine) which each have the touch panel display.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch panel display used as an input device or an input/output device is advantageous in that an input screen can be freely configured by use of software, and it therefore has a flexibility which cannot be obtained with an input device composed by use of mechanical switches. In addition, the touch panel display can be configured to be light in weight and compact in form, and is low in frequency of occurrence of mechanical failures. Due to these advantages, touch panel displays are widely used at present, ranging from console panels for comparatively large machines to input devices for very small portable apparatuses.
Many of the touch panel displays are so designed that the user's fingertip operating the touch panel display only touches a flat and smooth panel surface. Therefore, the touch panel displays do not give a click feeling such as those sensed by a fingertip operating an input device composed by use of mechanical switches. This has been the cause of the indefinite feeling in operating a touch panel display. To solve this problem, a touch panel display in which a tactile sensation is fed back to the user's fingertip operating the touch panel display has been disclosed in Patent Document 1. The touch panel display disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-288158 is so configured that a touch panel touched by the user's fingertip is vibrated in the direction orthogonal to the panel surface, whereby a tactile sensation is generated at the user's fingertip.